Ralph+Maltese

=Ralph Maltese=
 * =ralph.maltese@gmail.com=

http://futureisnow.wikispaces.com/file/view/Boot%20Camp%20Intro%20Slidespart%202A.pptx http://futureisnow.wikispaces.com/file/view/Boot%20Camp%20Intro%20Slidespart%202B.pptx

Ralph Maltese taught high school English for 36 years in the Abington School District. Along that teaching journey, he also taught Cinema, Debate, Creative Writing, Radio and Television, and a course which dates him, Computer Assisted Composition.

Ralph has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Villanova University, a Masters in English from Indiana University (Hoosier Country!) and, in true renaissance fashion, courses from various universities in computer science, modernist writers, psycho educational processes, and Elizabethan England. In the early 1970's, Ralph taught in the conventional way, using the "tried and true" tools of Vocabulary Monday and Spelling Tuesday, until, in an ephiphany, he realized that his students were not learning vocabulary or spelling. He did notice that, when engaged in collaborative learning---then known as group work--- students seemed to engage with the material and retain what they learned over a longer period of time. He read extensively Johnson and Johnson who were studying collaborative learning and Slavin. He also experimented a great deal in the classroom. Eventually his personal quest led to writing two articles on student collaboration for the //English Journal//. He also realized that, in order to be an effective teacher, he had to reinvent himself and redefine the problem of teaching from an activity that was formulaic to one that was problematic.

Understanding the concept that, if he wanted his students to learn, then they had to do most of the thinking, which means they had to do most of the work. Ralph spent the rest of his teaching career developing projects that engaged students in high level thinking. One of his favorite courses was Interdisciplinary Studies which he co-taught with a social studies teacher, an art teacher and a music teacher. Together they created projects involving the ancient Greeks, the Italian Renaissance, and modern American myths.

In 2002, Ralph was selected as Pennsylvania's 2002 Teacher of the Year. This honor enabled him to visit the Oval Office and meet the President of the United States, attend numerous conferences, and attend Space Camp. "The greatest part of my selection as Teacher of the Year was the opportunity to work with teachers from around the globe. I realized that teaching is not only a profession.....it is a language that only teachers can speak." In 2003, Ralph was awarded a Fulbright Memorial honor to study schools in Japan. His first book //A Class Act//, will be out in December of 2010.

Ralph became a Classrooms for the Future coach (Cohort 1), and later a PDE mentor, which allows him to work with and learn from some truly extraordinary people. His fundamental belief throughout his professional career is that the best student in the classroom ought to be the teacher. Currently he is actively involved in teaching a small class of four pre-school children composed entirely of his grandchildren.